Subject: warrior
Culture: Kiribati Micronesian
Setting: tribal conflict, Gilbert and Ellice / Kingsmill Islands mid 19thc.
Object: weapons
American Museum of Natural History > Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples *
"WEAPONS AND ARMOR used on the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) were unusual and effective. In this extremely warlike society, every man was a fighter. Battles took place between islands and even between kinsmen on the same island. Weapons included 20-foot-long thrusting spears, hardwood clubs for parrying spears and for striking, and daggers pointed with stingray spines. Remarkable weapons were designed for cutting or gashing: knives, spears and trident like swords of wood with rows of shark's teeth fastened to them with coconut fiber cord. [...]"
* National Museum of Scotland > Royal Museum
"Sword
Micronesia, probably Kiribati,
Nineteenth century
Whalebone, the edges grooved and framed with shark's teeth secured by sinnet."
Museo de América > El Conocimiento de América *
"Conjunto de armas de madera y dientes de tiburón sujetos con cuerdecitas. Polinesia."
* Palace of Wax/Ripley's Believe It or Not!
"SHARK TOOTH WEAPON
Lacking metal, the natives of the Gilbert and Ellice island [SIC] use whatever nature provides them to make unconventional, but lethal, weapons. Believe It or Not!, this 'sword' is a piece of wood Stubbed [SIC] with shark's teeth is actually a deadly sword! [SIC]"
* Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology > Pacific Islands Hall
Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology > Pacific Islands Hall *
"Shark-tooth weapon coconut wood, shark tooth Gilbert Islands" ...
* Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology > Pacific Islands Hall
"Spear head Kiribati (Gilbert Islands), Kingsmill Group" ...
Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology > Pacific Islands Hall *
"Shark-toothed knife
wood, shark's teeth
Gilbert Islands" ...
*
